A remediation approach to chromium-contaminated water and soil using engineered biochar derived from peanut shell

Hafiza Afia Murad; Mahtab Ahmad; Jochen Bundschuh; Yohey Hashimoto; Ming Zhang; Binoy Sarkar; Yong Sik Ok

doi:10.1016/j.envres.2021.112125

A remediation approach to chromium-contaminated water and soil using engineered biochar derived from peanut shell

Environ Res. 2022 Mar;204(Pt B):112125. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2021.112125. Epub 2021 Sep 28.

Authors

Hafiza Afia Murad¹, Mahtab Ahmad², Jochen Bundschuh³, Yohey Hashimoto⁴, Ming Zhang⁵, Binoy Sarkar⁶, Yong Sik Ok⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, 45320, Pakistan.
² Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, 45320, Pakistan. Electronic address: mahmad@qau.edu.pk.
³ Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, National Chung Cheng University, 168 University Road, Min-Hsiung, Chiayi County, 62102, Taiwan; UNESCO Chair on Groundwater Arsenic within the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, University of Southern Queensland, West Street, Toowoomba, Queensland, 4350, Australia.
⁴ Department of Bio-Applications and Systems Engineering, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, 2-24-16 Koganei, Tokyo, 184-8588, Japan.
⁵ Department of Environmental Engineering, China Jiliang University, No. 258 Xueyuan Street, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310018, China.
⁶ Lancaster Environment Center, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YQ, United Kingdom.
⁷ Korea Biochar Research Center, APRU Sustainable Waste Management Program & Division of Environmental Science and Ecological Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, South Korea. Electronic address: yongsikok@korea.ac.kr.

PMID: 34592252
DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2021.112125

Abstract

Hexavalent chromium (Cr[VI]) is one of the major environmental concerns due to its excessive discharge through effluents from the leather tanning industry. Peanut production leads to the generation of residual shells as waste calling for sustainable disposal. In this study, we employed an innovative approach of applying peanut-shell-derived pristine and engineered biochar for the remediation of Cr-contaminated wastewater and soil. The peanut shell waste was converted to biochar, which was further engineered with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB, a commonly used cationic surfactant). The biochars were then used for the adsorption and immobilization of Cr(VI) in water and soil, respectively. The adsorption experiments demonstrated high Cr(VI) removal efficiency for the engineered biochar (79.35%) compared with the pristine biochar (37.47%). The Langmuir model best described the Cr(VI) adsorption onto the biochars (R² > 0.97), indicating monolayer adsorption. Meanwhile, the adsorption kinetics indicated that chemisorption was the dominant mechanism of interaction between the Cr(VI) and the biochars, as indicated by the best fitting to the pseudo-second-order model (R² > 0.98). Adsorption through the fixed-bed column also presented higher Cr(VI) adsorption onto the engineered biochar (q_eq = 22.93 mg g^-1) than onto the pristine biochar (q_eq = 18.54 mg g^-1). In addition, the desorption rate was higher for the pristine biochar column (13.83 mg g^-1) than the engineered biochar column (10.45 mg g^-1), indicating that Cr(VI) was more strongly adsorbed onto the engineered biochar. A higher immobilization of Cr(VI) was observed in the soil with the engineered biochar than with the pristine biochar, as was confirmed by the significant decreases in the Cr(VI) bioavailability (92%), leachability (100%), and bioaccessibility (97%) compared with the control (soil without biochar). The CTAB-engineered biochar could thus potentially be used as an efficient adsorbent for the removal and the immobilization of Cr(VI) in water and soil, respectively.

Keywords: Designer biochar; Life on land; Soil quality; Soil remediation; Sustainable development goals.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adsorption
Arachis*
Charcoal
Chromium
Kinetics
Soil
Water
Water Pollutants, Chemical* / analysis

Substances

Soil
Water Pollutants, Chemical
biochar
Water
Chromium
Charcoal